The British economy contracted by 1.9pc in the first three months of the year, far more than economists expected, as Britain braces itself for decades of austerity.
The decline in gross domestic product was sharper than the 1.6pc seen in the final three months of 2008, when Britain officially entered recession. Economists had expected expected a fall of 1.5pc.

The Office for National Statistics figures show how widespread the crisis that began with the US banking sector has become in Britain, triggering a slump in the amount of goods and services that it produces.
It is the sharpest quarterly fall in gross domestic product (GDP) since 1979, when it fell by 2.4pc in the third quarter. At that time, the country was buckling under the pressure of mass unemployment and an intense class war.

The figure will embarrass Alistair Darling, who predicted in his Budget statement on Wednesday that in the first quarter the economy contracted “by a similar amount” to the fourth quarter of 2008.